


Don't Look Back

by danonymous



Category: Homestuck
Genre: (as usual), Child Abuse, Comic, Digital Art, Embedded Images, Eventual Romance, Gen, Gore, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Dave Strider, POV Second Person, Panic Attacks, Slurs, Snarky Dave, Snarky Karkat, Teen Angst, Texting, Whump, Yeah I'm Definitely Projecting, it's three in the morning, kind of, they have a ship, they have an actual spacecraft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:35:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29352813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danonymous/pseuds/danonymous
Summary: Tomorrow's one day that you're never getting back...Dave Strider, sick of being constantly abused and mistreated by his Bro, decides to run off with a rag-tag group of alien gamers and maybe fall in love, but not in, like, a gay way or anything.Probably.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider & Dave Strider
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	1. initial contact

**Author's Note:**

> looks like depression is back on the menu boys watch as this 13-year-old gets the shit beaten out of him and then runs away onto an alien spaceship this isn't canon-compliant in the slightest watch me indulge myself!  
> this chapter is longer when you read the text
> 
> Also renamed this to "Don't Look Back" because I literally cannot stop listening to that song and it inspires me to write more of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhPbpRKMY80

You slump down onto the ground; yet another fight has broken out between you and your bro. God knows why, but he came home, ravaging and shouting, leaving a trail of blood and destruction in his wake. You’re hidden in one of the few places where he can’t reach you- up on the roof, blocked off by a damaged plaster wall with a hole just small enough to let you in and to keep him out, this room could only be about 4 feet tall and 6 feet long on each side. There’s moss and lichens growing in the interstices between the thick old paint and concrete walls, each crevice teeming with insects, but you could care less. Sure, they’re annoying, but they’re here, and so are you. Hiding like the coward he always tells you that you are.

You don’t know what purpose this room could’ve served before being shunned by whoever blocked it off. Maybe they blocked it off so they could hide, too. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, pounding in your head, you can still feel each scar he’s left on you. You choke back a hiccupping sob and gaze up at the sky through a small fracture in the ceiling. Black and blue and speckled with dots, just like you. Tears are streaming down your face. You don’t know when that happened. You don’t know why you’re crying. You’re strong. You’re a leader.

You hear screaming from elsewhere on the roof and bring your knees closer to your chest, muffling your quiet sniffling. You’re not scared. He can’t get you in here. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, and you’re suddenly peeling off the scabs along your arms, sliced and damaged, bloody and calloused. You have to stop yourself. You don’t… you do… you don’t want to bleed to death. Your mind is circling. Your mind is circling. Your mind keeps circling and you pull yourself up a little. You pull your cracked phone from the pocket of your torn hand-me-down jeans, stained with blood and dirt. You turn it on, the screen illuminating your face ever so slightly. You have a notification from this one guy you barely know who wants to talk to you and you find yourself shakily texting back because anything is better than being alone with your thoughts.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG]

CG: HEY HUMAN GUY. 

CG: ARE YOU CONSCIOUS RIGHT NOW 

TG: unfortunately 

CG: GREAT 

CG: I TASKED EVERYONE ELSE TO GET IN CONTACT WITH ONE OF YOU, AND AS YOU CAN SEE, I ENDED UP MESSAGING YOU. 

TG: i get it man you're an alien do you want a trophy or something 

CG: I SEE YOU'RE A SARCASTIC FUCKING PRICKBULGE. 

CG: JUST MY LUCK. 

TG: sorry you got stuck with the most pathetic "prickbulge" of the bunch 

TG: fucking prickbulge what are you a fucking galactic visitor from a 60s sci-fi movie 

CG: YOU'RE CLEARLY AN ABSOLUTE DELIGHT TO BE AROUND. I BET YOU HAVE LOTS OF FRIENDS. 

TG: go ahead and rub it in 

TG: wanna rub your 'prickbulge' in there too while you're at it 

CG: NOT IN THE VERY SLIGHTEST, YOU FUCKING WASTECHUTE OF A HUMAN BEING. 

TG: you're a treat aren't you 

CG: GOD, WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP I JUST NEED TO ASK SOME QUESTIONS AND I'LL GLADLY AVOID YOU FOREVER 

TG: ask away, zim 

CG: ARE YOU ABLE TO ACCESS A COMPUTER AT YOUR CURRENT LOCATION 

TG: sure if i'm willing to get beaten to death 

CG: AS MUCH AS I'D LOVE THAT, YOU CAN'T GET BEATEN TO DEATH. YOU NEED TO GET A FUCKING COMPUTER.

TG: i can probably ask john to send me one, he has a bunch from trying to build shit a few years ago

CG: GREAT, DON'T CARE. QUESTION 2, ARE YOU IN A DANGEROUS SITUATION. DUMB QUESTION SINCE YOU'RE PERFECTLY FINE TEXTING. 

TG: you'd be surprised 

CG: YOU'RE IN DANGER RIGHT NOW? 

TG: one could say that, yeah 

CG: FOR FUCK'S SAKE. OF COURSE I GET THE HUMAN WITH A SWORD AGAINST ITS THROAT. TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW. 

TG: why would i tell you 

CG: THAT WOULD BE A FAIR POINT IF I WASN'T ACTIVELY ATTEMPTING TO TAKE YOU AWAY FROM THE FUCKING DANGER. 

CG: I DON'T EVEN CARE SINCE I CAN GET YOUR COORDINATES FROM YOUR HUMAN TELECOMMUNICATOR. 

TG: so why do you give a shit anyways 

TG: i barely know who you are other than a name and that john told me you'd text me 

CG: IT'S BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO JOIN THE SGRUB SESSION. IF YOU CAN'T, THEN NOT ONLY ARE YOUR FEW FRIENDS GOING TO HATE YOU FOREVER, BUT I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GO FIND A NEW FUCKING PLANET WITH LIFE INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO GET INTO THE FUCKING SESSION AND AS YOU CAN PROBABLY GUESS, IT'S A PAIN IN MY ASS. 

TG: what if you're a creep trying to kidnap me 

CG: FROM WHAT LITTLE I KNOW OF YOU I DON'T THINK ANYONE, MYSELF INCLUDED, WANT TO CREEP ON NOR "KIDNAP" YOU. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE? YOUR FUCKING LIFE IS BEING THREATENED AND I'M REALLY THROWING YOU A CARAPACE SHELL HERE. 

TG: what the fuck 

CG: IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER, NOW ARE YOU GOING TO WORK WITH ME OR NOT? I'M NOT GOING TO FUCKING HURT YOU, AND IF YOU CHANGE YOUR TINY LITTLE HUMAN MIND, FINE, I'LL PUT YOU RIGHT BACK IN DANGER AGAIN. 

You take a deep breath and look around. The little room smells of herbs and rot. Suddenly, there’s a pounding on the entrance-wall and the sound of a katana scraping pebbles on the ground. “Get the FUCK out here, you little SHIT!” your brother yells, his words slurring and creaking like nails on a chalkboard, his accent thick and heavy. “EVERY SECOND you spend hidin’ in there just proves how much of a PUSSY LI’L FAGGOT YOU ARE. Get the FUCK out here and face me like a MAN ‘fore I come in there and… hurk...” You hear him retch and vomit before continuing, “stick it down your FUCKIN’ THROAT…” You breathe in again, the smell of alcohol, cigarettes, and bile slithering through the air around you.

You just want to die. You want to leave. Anything, anything at all is better than this. You take a deep breath, and with shaky fingers, type out a text message.

TG: fine, i'll go 

CG: GREAT, TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH. 

CG: WE'RE BY EARTH ANYWAYS IN CASE SOME SHIT LIKE THIS HAPPENED, SO I'LL TELL VRISKA TO NAVIGATE SOMEWHERE BIG, OPEN, AND CLOSE TO YOUR LOCATION. 

CG: SHE'LL DROP A TRANSPORTALIZER PAD AND YOU'LL USE IT TO GET ON THE SHIP. 

CG: HERE'S THE LOCATION. 

SYSTEM MESSAGE: 

carcinoGenetecist sent coordinates. Open in GPS Maps.

TG: i 

TG: 

TG: thank you 

CG: WHAT THE FUCK EVER JUST FUCKING GO ALREADY 

This might be a bad decision, but it feels good to have control once in a while. With newfound confidence, you wait for bro to start throwing up again and sneak out of the hole, dart behind him, and climb down the back ladder. As you descend, you can still hear him banging on the plaster wall telling you to get out. He’ll wear himself out eventually and fall asleep, you guess. But for now, you have to run off to get in an alien ship and probably die.


	2. catching sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> happy almost valentines day. this chapter has art drawn by the lovely me myself and i and it sucks. enjoy  
> image description at the end for those who don't understand or don't wanna look at my art

You check your phone. No new messages. GPS says you're at the right place. It's about 1 AM. You look around at the moonlit field outstretched before you. Untrimmed grass and wild wheat ears flow gently with the night breeze, shining pale under the nighttime sky. The meadow surrounding you is dipped inwards like a small valley, each hill topped with a few sparse-looking trees and bushes. You've gone just about a mile or two from your house, so it's nowhere to be seen. You gaze up at the sky, which is a deep black-indigo bespeckled with bright, twinkling stars, the moon in the center without a cloud in sight. The field spans a few hundred feet, and you're standing just about in the center. Suddenly you feel a strong gust of wind from behind you, and when you turn, you hear a loud _FWOOP!_ followed by the sound of something pretty heavy hitting the ground about halfway between yourself and one of the surrounding hills.

You run up towards the object, careful not to get too close. You look up in the sky. Some of the stars are blotted out by what looks like a weirdly shaped reddish cloud, but since you have a brain, you assume it's Mr. Angry Dude's ship. You squint up at it when suddenly the object begins to _whirr_ and expand into a disk-shaped platform. Engraved on the perimeter are some unknown symbols as well as... zodiac signs? The symbols glow with a subtle sky blue. You remain firmly in your place, partially from fear and partially because you have no idea what the fuck you'd even do with the thing. About a minute passes and your phone buzzes in your pocket.

CG: STAND ON THE FUCKING TRANSPORTALIZER, YOU FUCKING IDIOT.

TG: ok um

TG: is it gonna kill me or something

CG: DO YOU REALLY THINK I'D GO THROUGH ALL THIS TROUBLE, NAVIGATE THIS FUCKING FAR, FLY ALL THE WAY OVER TO YOUR SECTION OF EARTH, DROP A TRANSPORTALIZER, AND FUCKING KILL YOU WITH IT?

TG:

TG: fine

You step forward onto the "transportalwhatever" and close your eyes, holding your breath. Through your eyelids, you see a flash of light. You clench your jaw

an̟d̃ k͜ee̱p̨ ̧̤͂yo̰u̻͇ͯr̷̰̰͛͑ ̻̼̋

e̶̛͚͆̌y̞͂̈́ͥeͥsͮ̿ͣ ͍

c͍͌̉̍͗l̒͐̆̆ͥͨ͗o̶̺̭͎̠͖͒ͨ̑̈́ͤͮ̅̇͊ͮ̕s̢̡͎͍͚̰̜̙̅̏̔ͦ͆ͭ̚ẹ̸̡̩̠̞̲͉̬̼̱̯̐͆̇ͦ̐d̤̹̫͠.̷̝̞̙̮̮̊̓̀ͮ̏ͦ̒͢͟͢

The air smells different and you feel a little lightheaded. You open your eyes slightly to see a few figures in front of you, discussing something you can't quite make out in your haze. You open your eyes completely and see one of the figures turn to face you. He's holding some kind of list on a paper, his gray face and golden eyes looking at you, his orange horns and deep gray-black hair brightened under the harsh light of the ship. He stares at you, and you stare back.

He looks you over with... concern? Oh yeah, probably since you're covered in wounds, some of them slightly peeled off, and also because you're a completely different species. You're totally paralyzed in absolute terror and... well, the fact that you're on an alien ship. Freezing cold sweat pricks at your face and palms and you feel slight tears make their way from your eyes. Suddenly, like the person before you just finished an internal battle...

And, with tears streaming from your eyes...

you hug back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ID: A black and white drawing of Dave, looking at a blurry silhouette in the foreground. The next panel shows the silhouette, Karkat, looking back on him worriedly.  
> NEXT IMAGE: A black and white frame of both Dave and Karkat looking at each other a few feet away from each other. A black and white frame of Karkat running towards Dave, causing him to jump in fear. A black and white frame of Karkat hugging Dave, who is suspended in disbelief.  
> NEXT IMAGE: A black and white view of Dave's face, looking shocked and scared. The next frame shows his eyes slightly closed, tears starting to stream down his cheeks.  
> NEXT IMAGE: A colored image of Dave hugging Karkat back, Dave's eyes closed and more tears on his face.  
> END ID.


End file.
